Running Northwest (23 page)

Sometimes Derrick could read Thomas like a book and he could tell what his friend was thinking just by the look on his face. On some occasions, however – like now – Thomas’ face gave nothing away and it was like staring at a brick wall. For as long as Derrick had known him, Thomas had been very private with his thoughts and emotions and only occasional would he let them show; and he only did so after carefully thinking them through. He agreed with what Thomas had said about Tracie and him having an intense connection. Nevertheless, Derrick was quietly concerned for both of his friends.

After a minute or so Derrick spoke up and said, “Thomas just be careful with Tracie, okay man? You’re both good friends to me and I don’t want either one of you to get hurt. And by the way – if you hurt her, I will at least make an attempt at kicking your ass…before you put me on the ground like a fallen tree, of course,” he laughed.

“Derrick, I would expect nothing less from you my friend – even the attempt. But I’m going to do my best not to mess this up or hurt her,” Thomas said smoothly.

“That’s all I ask,” Derrick said, adding, “So is she a good kisser?”

“Impeccable,” Thomas said very quickly and giving his friend a cheesy smile.

“Nice!” Derrick said and let out a small quick laugh

“Ye
s indeed, so what else do you two
have to talk about? Or did you call me here just to talk about girls and dating?” Thomas said.

“Umm, no. There’s more, Tom,” Derrick said, his tone becoming more serious than it had been.

Thomas leaned forward and said, “Okay, then what else you got?”

“I heard that earlier in the week there was a guy in town asking around about us. He seemed to be especially interested in you. It’s a good thing we have friends here, man, otherwise we may not have found out,” Derrick said.

Thomas’ eyes went from calm to furious in an instant and Derrick could see it. Thomas took a sip of his drink then reached into his coat and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, took one out and lit it and inhaled deeply. Derrick did the same even though it was against the law. It was their office, their business and they would do what they wanted. And right now Thomas was seething and Derrick would let him do whatever he needed to do to calm down.

“So tell me what you know Derrick. Who did you hear this from? What kind of questions was he asking? Who let you know about it? Tell me it all…” Thomas said as calmly as he possible could.

“Well I got a call from Stan Baker; he and his wife own that little diner over on the south end Main Street. Apparently this guy stopped in for lunch on Wednesday and was chatting up the waitress. It made her nervous so she went and got Mrs. Baker. She talked to him for a little bit but told him a whole lot of nothing but a bunch of runaround. She said he was dressed all fancy; had a suit coat on and didn’t really fit in,” Derrick said.

“Yeah, I know them; they’re good people. They help with a lot of stuff at Daniel’s school – fundraisers and all that. They raise their two grandkids if I remember right,” Thomas said as he stared blankly in the direction of the TV.

“The very same ones, and yeah, they are great people. Apparently they called a few other people around town and to spread the word as soon as they could after he left the diner,” Derrick said.

“He was asking questions about me and where I live and work, and then started with questions about you along those same lines. But Thomas, you should know – he also he started asking questions about Daniel,” Derrick added, saying the last part slowly and cautiously.

Thomas came off the couch like an angry grizzly bear and threw his drink against the wall shattering the glass in a rage, then shouted, “How come this if the first I heard about this Derrick? Some strange person that nobody knows comes into town and starts asking about my son? What the hell? Who is this son of a bitch? He’s a dead man!” Thomas said furiously

“Tom, I didn’t find out until yesterday and I didn’t want to say anything until I knew something more; something worth telling you about. I had to make a lot of calls. I know you and I know you would have torn this town and probably half of the state apart over it, and that could have been bad. Really bad, and you know that,” Derrick said calmly in an attempt to calm his friend down as well.

Thomas paced the small room yelling and swearing at nothing for a few minutes, then eventually calming down enough that Derrick could deal with him.

“Okay, I get it. I’m sorry; what else did you find out?” Thomas asked after taking a deep breath and easing his emotions down a bit.

“Well I know that in the morning he went to the library and also the newspaper and looked at some old copies or files or something. I’m not sure what he looked at exactly, but I know he was there. He stopped here at the bar around noon but it was closed; I watched the security tapes from the cameras outside. I heard that he went to the hardware store, a gas station and also over to Sandy’s Bar on the other side of town in the afternoon. I guess he had a few drinks and played some pool there. He asked a lot of questions at the bar, but I think by then word had gotten around from the sound of it. He rubbed a few people the wrong way around town. Jerry’s brother and a few of his fisherman friends were there and basically told the guy to get hell out of the bar, AND the town. I guess he left in a big hurry after that. I haven’t heard anything more than that as far as where he went in town, if anywhere. I’m also not sure what he did in between those places; probably just poked around,” Derrick said

“So do we have any idea who this guy is or who he works for? Did he happen to give anyone a business card or tell them his name?” Thomas asked.

Due to various things in Thomas’s past, it could have been a multitude of people from various places and lifestyles. He had, for the most part, walked away from a completely different life years ago. A few years before he even met Sarah and Daniel. Thomas was aware of, however, that sometimes things from the past have an interesting way of coming back to haunt someone.

“He told Mrs. Baker that his name was Brian and didn’t give a last name, but she told me that she didn’t believe him. She said he stuttered when she asked him his name, Derrick said.

Derrick reached around behind him, pulled out a folder, and handed it to Thomas who opened it up fast and went through.

“So this is the guy, huh?” Thomas said quietly.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at four pictures from various security cameras and two others taken with some sort of handheld camera. To Derrick, Thomas looked like a hunter studying his prey. It made Derrick nervous. The man in the pictures was Hispanic and appeared to be in his early to mid-30’s. He was thin, looked to be around 5’10”, had a thin goatee and wore eyeglasses. He was dressed well – in khaki pants, brown sport coat, white dress shirt and no tie. There was a camera that looked professional strapped around his neck.

“Who took this one?” Thomas asked, holding up a picture of the unknown man opening his car door.

Derrick laughed when Thomas held the picture up and said, “Mrs. Baker took that one as soon as he walked out of the restaurant. She seems she stepped out the door with her digital camera and took a picture, the cunning old woman. But yes, that’s him Tom.”

Thomas studied the picture for a minute, in the back of his mind the guy in the picture seemed familiar to him for some reason but he wasn’t sure why or how.

“Well we have a nice shot of the plate on his car, assuming it’s not a rental car. Have you tried running it and seeing what we can find?” Thomas asked, already knowing the answer and wondering why he even bothered asking.

“Already working on it Bro – it seems we chose to back the correct man for sheriff in the last election. I sent it to John in an email this morning and asked him to run the plate as a favor to you and me and to get back to me on as soon as possible with what he finds. I only gave him a brief explanation of what was going on…kind of had to. He’s a cop after all and would have heard about it from someone,” Derrick said.

“Yeah, he is a smart man; I guess we did back the right guy. But he is a good man and very honest. He drinks his coffee black with no sugar like my dad does,” Thomas laughed, saying, “This guy looks like a reporter to me Derrick, what do you think?”

“Well he doesn’t look like a cop or some sort of Fed; too bookish if you get my drift. And from the types of questions he was asking he does sound like a reporter type…or maybe a P.I?” Derrick said as he poked his finger at one of the pictures then said, continuing, “The big ass camera is a giveaway.”

“I agree on the P.I. part; but if he was a decent P.I. he would have never let his car be seen and would have been smarter in town with people. When I get home tonight I will look at my security cameras from around the house and from the coffee shop to see if he managed to get that far. Assuming he is one of those things, he must have at least made it to the shop…unless he sucks at his job, like I said. He would have a hard time finding where I live,” Thomas said.

“Good point. Have a look and let me know what you find, if anything, okay? Then when I hear back from John I’ll come see you at the shop,” Derrick said.

“Sounds good to me; after that we can decide what to do, if anything at all. It could be something simple,” Thomas said.

The two friends and business partners then moved on to other simpler subjects such as work and things going on around town. They had another drink, and talked about the upcoming Seattle trip and sports. After another 45 minutes or so Thomas shook Derrick’s hand put his coat on, walked out the back door got in his truck and headed back towards Tracie’s house. The entire drive there his mind was exploding with “what if scenarios” and trying to figure out where how he knew the stranger that had been in town. It had been a long day and he was tired, and for as much as he wanted to hang around Tracie’s for a while when he got there he was just far too tired.

Once he got to Tracie’s he went inside to get his son. He talked to Tracie very briefly and told her he was tired and would talk to her at the shop in the morning and fill her in on what happened. He gave her a kiss goodbye once Daniel was in the truck and out of sight. A few minutes later, they were on their heading back to their small beach house. By the time they had gotten there, Daniel was fast asleep in the passenger seat and Thomas had to carry him into the house and put him into bed. It had been a long day for both of them. It would be a while before Thomas would be able to go to sleep; he had some work to do now.

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Back at The Whaleback Derrick was sitting in his office and getting ready to leave also. Thomas had left well over an hour ago and Derrick did not need to be there anymore, he would let the others close up the bar. As he was getting ready, he looked down at his blackberry and saw he had a voicemail. When he was meeting with Thomas he had the volume turned down and did not notice the phone call. He picked up his phone, called his voice mail and waited for it to start. As he listened to the message, his whole body tensed up.

“Hey, Derrick this is Stephanie…I know we haven’t talked for a while…just wanted to call and see how things are going for you out there…umm… call back sometime when you get some free time. It would be great…there are some things I need to talk to you about…uh…bye I guess.”

“What the…good God. Dammit all, Stephanie,” Derrick said aloud as he wiped his face in frustration and hanging up the phone.

The timing of her phone call could not have been worse considering what was going on. He decided he would call tomorrow and see what she wanted. He then slipped the phone into his coat pocket and went home.

The next day was busier than what Thomas had planned on it being, most of it he spent on the phone. After bringing Daniel to school and helping him carry his things for his science project in he headed to the coffee shop. Tracie opened the coffee shop this morning and was in pleasant mood once Thomas walked in the door. There were a few customers in the shop this morning so the new couple kept their relationship in front of customers purely professional. They snuck a few occasional kisses from each other in the back room where the customers could not see them but that was the extent of it.
He
gave her a quick rundown of the meeting with Derrick but left out a few of the major details, the stranger in town being one of them.

Thomas spent over an hour in the office pouring through security camera videos from the week before. When Tracie asked what he was doing, the only answer he gave was “I’m looking for someone”. He had the look on his face that he got when he was concentrating hard on something so she left him alone to his work. The shop phone was ringing more than normal for a Monday and every call Thomas took himself. The coffee delivery came in earlier than normal so Tracie took care of that so Thomas could finish with what he was doing. It was near sixty degrees outside and sunny for a change so Tracie decided to open up the windows of the shop and let some fresh air blow into the shop. Thomas came out every once in a while to refill his coffee and talk to Tracie and get some fresh air out the back door and have a cigarette. At about 12:34 while Thomas was back in the office and Tracie looked out the front door and saw Derrick pull up on his motorcycle. A moment later he walked into the shop with a back pack over one shoulder.